SJC–Wolvercote Cricket Match

The SJC side represented all parts of the college community, including Emeritus Fellows, Governing Body members, Visiting Academics, professional staff, students and alumni, as well as two very good players kindly lent to us by Wolvercote for the day!

The pitch, expertly prepared by Ian Madden, offered something to both quicks and spinners, and the SJC team restricted Wolvercote to 126 in their 20 overs, with some excellent fielding from Liz Carmichael, Jason Schnell, Zakeria Shnizai, Carlos Mendez Olaya and Joe Leach, and probing bowling from Tom Ritter.

Our run chase looked in vain at 62-5 off 13 overs, but we moved nicely through the gears to overhaul the total with 2 balls to spare, as SJC captain Ben McFarlane hit the winning runs.

The Wolvercote team was captained by Sam Payne, who knows the college well, as his mother Heather was Assistant SCR Butler at St John’s for forty years! She is pictured below (left) alongside her colleagues in the Senior Common Room team in 2018. This photograph is part of a fantastic series of portraits of long-serving members of St John's staff commissioned by the college from the photographer Rory Carnegie. (Read more about that commission here.)

Following the match, both teams enjoyed food and refreshments generously provided by the college catering team, and plans have already been made to repeat the exercise next year, when we can only hope that Wolvercote will be similarly generous in lending us their star players!